What Rabbi Lau told Itamar Orphan Ro’ee Fogel

In this photo: Yisrael Meir Lau (8 years old) in the arms of a fellow Buchenwald survivor upon their arrival at Haifa on 15 July 1945.

I heard such a beautiful story this week from my teacher HaRabbanit Yemima Mizrachi. Harabbanit Yemima said that when the former chief rabbi and Holocaust survivor Yisrael Meir Lau entered the Fogel family shiva, the very first person he wanted to speak with was the Fogel’s 8-year-old son, Ro’ee.

Rabbi Lau told Ro’ee Fogel: “Listen to me, Ro’ee. You are an 8-year-old orphan. At your age, at the age of 8, I arrived in Israel after being freed from Buchenwald. I didn’t have a mother. I didn’t have a father. I didn’t know the language. I didn’t know anybody in this new country. I had no idea what was happening. I had no idea where I was going.”

“Look at me today. I grew up to become the Chief Rabbi of Israel. And you, Ro’ee, are going to become the Chief Rabbi of Israel too.”

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